Nathan Buck was one of several high-profile players to leave Leicestershire after a dismal season in 2014 when he joined Lancashire. Buck's first-class records was unspectacular - 150 wickets in 37.78 in a Championship career spent in the Second Division - but a slightly stronger showing in his final season at Grace Road - 42 wickets in nine games at 30.71 - gave Lancashire hope that, at 23, the best was yet to come.

Buck was very highly rated as a teenager, regularly being clocked around 75mph at 15 years old. Before turning 17, he had trained with England A, often under the tuition of the England bowling coach at the time, Ottis Gibson. His cricket education continued in February 2008 when he travelled to India to attend the Dennis Lillee Foundation for two weeks, and he made his first-class debut for Leicestershire in 2009 against Surrey at the Oval.

He was England's leading wicket taker at the 2010 U-19 World Cup with 13 victims and that season took 49 wickets at 27. He was then selected for the England Lions tour to the West Indies where he took five wickets. He was not been able to reach the same level of success in subsequent seasons, although he did take five wickets in an innings for the first time against Gloucestershire at Bristol among his 25 first-class wickets in 2011, after which England continued to monitor his progress via the winter Performance Programme. Injuries subsequently hindered his progress.